This was the very first official WOD that I completed as a CrossFitter, and I did so about seven years ago at CFD. I certainly didn’t complete as prescribed! I remember somersaulting up to the wall for HSPUs (and using Abmats, although I can’t recall how many). I also remember that only six activities were listed on the whiteboard. Uhm, the coach had forgotten to record knees to elbows, if I recall correctly.

Jeff is working in the Dominican Republic and I’m very lonely without him. I was awakened at 4 am this morning by an overweight cat sitting on my chest, purring, and staring at me. Bad kitty! ‘Twas Zac.

While choosing my outfit I picked up a pair of Gap sweatpants. They didn’t look familiar, but I’ve been known to purchase — and then forget that I’ve purchased — quite a few items of clothing, so this was no surprise. The sweatpants were size small, so I knew they weren’t Jeff’s. The garment was a little loose around the waits and I had to cinch the drawstrings tight. My hands were cold so whilst coaching the 6 am session I placed them in the pockets of the sweatpants. And then realized that I was wearing women’s sweatpants, as the pockets were too small to even fit my hands. Ha!

This workout had me quite scared, as I had seen Coach Nick struggle through the thrusters, often completing one at a time, i.e., a cluster. I convinced myself to at least give it a try, even if it meant doing 49 clusters, and/or scaling the weight of the thrusters.

Things went much better than I expected.

Uhm, I mistakenly thought the weight for the deadlifts was 255#, and that’s what I lifted. Dammit. I don’t know that I would’ve completed the workout much if any faster if the weight had been 245#.

The easiest parts of the workout were, in order: knees to elbows, pull-ups, burpees, handstand pushups, and kettle bell swings (surprisingly). The hardest parts were thrusters and deadlifts. But mostly thrusters.

I completed all rounds of knees to elbows, burpees, swings, and pull-ups in unbroken reps, although I did miss the first rep of the fourth round of knees to elbows (knees touched below elbows) and re-did. For all intents and purposes I also completed the deadlifts unbroken in that, whilst I did drop every rep from the top, I didn’t rest whilst completing reps.

I completed the first 6 or 7 rounds of HSPUs in unbroken reps. Why do I say 6 or 7? Because whilst completing the 6th round I couldn’t honestly recall if I had completed HSPUs between pull-ups and thrusters. I almost certain that I did, but when in doubt… Thus, after completing 7th pull-ups of 7th round I completed 7 HSPUs, completing 5 unbroken reps and then failing the very last rep. Yup, I re-did.

About the thrusters… I completed the 1st round in unbroken reps of 5 & 2 and rounds 2 through 6 in unbroken reps of 4 & 3. I completed the first rep of each set as a full squat clean, i.e., no power cleaning for me today. I completed 3 unbroken reps the last round and then whilst attempting to complete 2 unbroken reps failed the 5th rep. I didn’t lock out my arms. I completed the last 3 reps as clusters. For the first time in a very long time I found myself talking out loud. “Just three more. One at a time. This is your last three. You can do it. You’re almost finished.”

Not only did I record the accumulated time on the clock but I also moved a poker chip after completing each round. That was quite unnecessary.